Field of the Disclosure
The present Disclosure relates an ink-jet printing apparatus which prints an image by ejecting ink from a print head and a cleaning method therefor.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-296755 discloses an ink-jet printing apparatus including a print head having a nozzle face having a large-discharge port array including a plurality of large nozzles each having a large diameter and a small-discharge port array having a plurality of small nozzles each having a small diameter. The type of nozzles to be used is selected in accordance with a printing mode. Each of the small nozzles has a small discharge port area and exhibits a larger meniscus acting on interfaces of the discharge ports than the large nozzles. Thus, the small nozzles may not sufficiently suck bubbles in a configuration in which the large-discharge port array and the small-discharge port array are covered with a cap to suck bubbles contained ink. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-296755 discloses that negative pressure is applied to suck ink and bubbles from the large nozzles and larger negative pressure is then applied to suck them again so that bubbles can be sucked sufficiently from small nozzles.
However, in the configuration of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-296755, the suction with larger negative pressure is executed before a printing operation is started even in a printing mode without using small nozzles, requiring time to start a printing operation and making a user wait.